Paul Grams, Ph.D.
Paul Grams is a geomorphologist at the Southwest Biological Science Center's field station, Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center. He manages a set of projects collectively called the River Geomorphology and Geomorphic Change project. These include a range of studies that describe, quantify, and predict geomorphic change, mostly on large rivers in the western United States.&nb
Paul Grams received a BA in Geology from Middlebury College (1991), an M.S. in Geology from Utah State University (1997), and a Ph.D. in Geography and Environmental Engineering from Johns Hopkins University (2006). For an undergraduate thesis, Paul examined the effects of Hells Canyon Dam on the hydrology and downstream physical resources of the Snake River in Idaho. Since that time he has studied the interaction between human-induced changes in hydrology and channel form on many segments of the Green River in Utah and Colorado, small streams in northern Utah and southern Idaho, and the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. Paul’s current research interests are in fluvial geomorphology, sediment transport, the downstream effects of dams and diversions, and the connections between physical processes and ecological systems on large rivers. Paul is currently a research hydrologist at the Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center and manages several projects related to geomorphology, sediment budgets, and the effects of controlled floods on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon and in other parts of the Colorado River Basin.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 20
Channel narrowing data for the lower Green River in the Canyonlands region, Utah, USA
The 'Channel Width' shapefile data are measurements of the active channel width of the Green River at 1-km intervals in and near Canyonlands National Park, Utah. The active channel was defined as the area of the wetted, or inundated, channel as visible on aerial photographs plus the area of bare (free of vegetation) sand and gravel bars. The active channel for each aerial photograph series was han
Colorado River Eddy Sandbar Dynamics Data
These data are a compilation of the characteristics of eddy sandbars, eddy sandbar areas and volumes measured between 1990 and 2015, and longitudinal metrics of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. These data were used to evaluate the response of sandbars to controlled floods implemented in 1996, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, and 2014. These data were also used to characterize the
River Valley Sediment Connectivity Data, Colorado River, Grand Canyon
This workbook contains spatial data on the hydrology, sedimentology, and vegetation extent within the Colorado River corridor from 60 to 78 miles (97 to 125 kilometers) downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona. In combination with the accompanying MATLAB scripts, these data were used to generate the results within the accompanying manuscript (Kasprak et al., Quantifying and Forecasting Changes in
Sand classifications along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon derived from 2002, 2009, and 2013 high-resolution multispectral airborne imagery
These data are remote sensing image-based classification maps of unvegetated river-derived sand along the Colorado River. One map is based on imagery acquired in May 2013 and is a classification of sand located above the wetted river channel in the imagery which was acquired at the approximate contemporary low-flow river discharge of 8,000 cubic feet per second (227 cubic meters per second) and ex
Acoustic backscatter - Data and Python Code
These data were compiled for investigating the relationship between acoustic backscattering by riverbeds composed of various riverbed substrates (bed sediment), and for developing and testing a probabilistic model for substrate classification based on high-frequency multibeam acoustic backscatter. The model is described in Buscombe et al. (2017). The data consist of various quantities on coinciden
Geomorphology and Campsite Data, Colorado River, Marble and Grand Canyon, Arizona
This ESRI geodatabase consists of 5 feature datsets with 23 individual polygon feature classes and two raster datasets. A master campsite polygon feature class represents the boundaries of campsites identified in the 1973, 1984, and 1991 campsite inventories of the Colorado River corridor in Grand Canyon, Arizona. The other polygon feature classes represent camp locations along the Colorado River
Channel Mapping of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona - May 2009, river miles 29 to 62Data
Bathymetric, topographic, and grain-size data were collected in May 2009 along a 33-mi reach of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. The study reach is located from river miles 29 to 62 at the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers. Channel bathymetry was mapped using multibeam and singlebeam echosounders, subaerial topography was mapped using ground-based tota
Riparian vegetation, Colorado River, and climate: five decades of spatio-temporal dynamics in the Grand Canyon with river regulation
These data include image-based classifications of total vegetation from 1965, 1973, 1984, 1992, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2009, and characteristics of the river channel along the riparian area of the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Mead Reservoir. Also, these polygon data represent the area inundated by the Colorado River in the aerial imagery from overflight of the Grand Canyon in May
Filter Total Items: 73
Field evaluation of a compact, polarizing topo‐bathymetric lidar across a range of river conditions
This paper summarizes field trials to evaluate the performance of a prototype compact topo‐bathymetric lidar sensor for surveying rivers. The sensor uses a novel polarization technique to distinguish between laser returns from the water surface and streambed and its size and weight permit deployment from a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) or a boat. Field testing was designed to identify the ra
Authors
Paul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Paul Grams
Geometry of obstacle marks at instream boulders-Integration of laboratory investigations and field observations
Obstacle marks are instream bedforms, typically composed of an upstream frontal scour hole and a downstream sediment accumulation in the vicinity of an obstacle. Local scouring at infrastructure (e.g. bridge piers) is a well‐studied phenomenon in hydraulic engineering, while less attention is given to the time‐dependent evolution of frontal scour holes at instream boulders and their geometric rela
Authors
Oliver Schlömer, Paul Grams, Daniel Buscombe, Jürgen Herget
Self-limitation of sand storage in a bedrock-canyon river arising from the interaction of flow and grain size
Bedrock-canyon rivers tend to be supply limited because they are efficient transporters of sediment and not because the upstream supply of sediment is small. A byproduct of this supply limitation is that the finer alluvium stored in these rivers has shorter residence times and smaller volumes than in alluvial rivers. To improve our understanding of disequilibrium sediment transport and its effect
Authors
David Topping, Paul Grams, Ronald E. Griffiths, David Dean, Scott A. Wright, Joel A. Unema
The roles of flood magnitude and duration in controlling channel width and complexity on the Green River in Canyonlands, Utah, USA
Predictions of river channel adjustment to changes in streamflow regime based on relations between mean channel characteristics and mean flood magnitude can be useful to evaluate average channel response. However, because these relations assume equilibrium sediment transport, their applicability to cases where streamflow and sediment transport are decoupled may be limited. These general relations
Authors
Paul Grams, David Dean, Alexander E. Walker, Alan Kasprak, John C. Schmidt
Estimating the contribution of tributary sand inputs to controlled flood deposits for sandbar restoration using elemental tracers, Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963 resulted in complete elimination of sediment delivery from the upstream Colorado River basin to Grand Canyon and nearly complete control of spring snowmelt floods responsible for creating channel and bar morphology. Management of the river ecosystem in Grand Canyon National Park now relies on dam-release floods to redistribute tributary-derived sediment accumu
Authors
Katherine A. Chapman, Rebecca J. Best, M. Elliot Smith, Erich R. Mueller, Paul E. Grams, Roderic A. Parnell
Does channel narrowing by floodplain growth necessarily indicate sediment surplus? Lessons from sediment‐transport analyses in the Green and Colorado rivers, Canyonlands, Utah
Analyses of suspended sediment transport provide valuable insight into the role that sediment supply plays in causing geomorphic change. The sediment supply within a river system evolves depending on the discharge, flood frequency and duration, changes in sediment input, and ecohydraulic conditions that modify sediment transport processes. Changes in supply can be evaluated through analyses of cou
Authors
David Dean, David Topping, Paul Grams, Alexander E. Walker, John C. Schmidt
Causes of variability in suspended‐sand concentration evaluated using measurements in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon
Rivers commonly exhibit substantial variability in suspended‐sand concentration, even at constant water discharge. Here we derive an approach for evaluating how much of this variability arises from mean bed‐sand grain size. We apply this approach to the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, where discharge‐independent concentration of suspended sand varies by more than a factor of 23 (N = 1.4 × 106). Th
Authors
David M. Rubin, Daniel Buscombe, Scott A. Wright, David Topping, Paul Grams, John C. Schmidt, J.E. Hazel, Matthew A. Kaplinski, Robert B. Tusso
A mixed length scale model for migrating fluvial bedforms
With the expansion of hydropower, in‐stream converters, flood‐protection infrastructures, and growing concerns on deltas fragile ecosystems, there is a pressing need to evaluate and monitor bedform sediment mass flux. It is critical to estimate real‐time bedform size and migration velocity and provide a theoretical framework to convert easily accessible time histories of bed elevations into spatia
Authors
Michele Guala, Michael Heisel, Arvind Singh, Mirko Musa, Daniel Buscombe, Paul Grams
Channel narrowing by inset floodplain formation of the lower Green River in the Canyonlands region, Utah
The lower Green River episodically narrowed between the mid-1930s and present day through deposition of new floodplains within a wider channel that had been established and/or maintained during the early twentieth century pluvial period. Comparison of air photos spanning a 74-yr period (1940−2014) and covering a 61 km study area shows that the channel narrowed by 12% from 138 ± 3.4 m to 122 ± 2.1
Authors
Alexander E. Walker, Johnnie N. Moore, Paul Grams, David Dean, John C. Schmidt
Associations between riparian plant morphological guilds and fluvial sediment dynamics along the regulated Colorado River in Grand Canyon
Effects of riparian vegetation on fluvial sediment dynamics depend on morphological traits of the constituent species. Determining the effects of different morphological guilds on sedimentation rates, as influenced by multiple aspects of dam operations, can help identify viable strategies for streamflow and vegetation management to achieve riparian resource goals. Plants of increasing size and bra
Authors
Bradley J. Butterfield, Paul Grams, Laura E. Durning, Joseph Hazel, Emily C. Palmquist, Barbara Ralston, Joel B. Sankey
Estimating bedload from suspended load and water discharge in sand bed rivers
Estimates of fluvial sediment discharge from in situ instruments are an important component of large‐scale sediment budgets that track long‐term geomorphic change. Suspended sediment load can be reliably estimated using acoustic or physical sampling techniques; however, bedload is difficult to measure directly and can consequently be one of the largest sources of uncertainty in estimates of total
Authors
T.C. Ashley, B. McElroy, D. Buscombe, Paul Grams, M. Kaplinski
Using oblique imagery to measure hypsometric changes in sandbar volume following controlled floods in the Grand Canyon
Measuring changes in the elevation distribution of sub-aerial fine (< 2 mm ) sediment and estimating sandbar volume multiple times per year can improve sediment budget calculations in fluvial systems. In the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, effects of dam operations on sandbar size and distribution is of long-term management interest. Bar-building controlled floods have been implemented in 1996
Authors
Ryan Lima, Daniel Buscombe, Temuulen T. Sankey, Paul Grams, Erich R. Mueller
Science and Products
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Filter Total Items: 20
Channel narrowing data for the lower Green River in the Canyonlands region, Utah, USA
The 'Channel Width' shapefile data are measurements of the active channel width of the Green River at 1-km intervals in and near Canyonlands National Park, Utah. The active channel was defined as the area of the wetted, or inundated, channel as visible on aerial photographs plus the area of bare (free of vegetation) sand and gravel bars. The active channel for each aerial photograph series was hanColorado River Eddy Sandbar Dynamics Data
These data are a compilation of the characteristics of eddy sandbars, eddy sandbar areas and volumes measured between 1990 and 2015, and longitudinal metrics of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. These data were used to evaluate the response of sandbars to controlled floods implemented in 1996, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2013, and 2014. These data were also used to characterize theRiver Valley Sediment Connectivity Data, Colorado River, Grand Canyon
This workbook contains spatial data on the hydrology, sedimentology, and vegetation extent within the Colorado River corridor from 60 to 78 miles (97 to 125 kilometers) downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona. In combination with the accompanying MATLAB scripts, these data were used to generate the results within the accompanying manuscript (Kasprak et al., Quantifying and Forecasting Changes inSand classifications along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon derived from 2002, 2009, and 2013 high-resolution multispectral airborne imagery
These data are remote sensing image-based classification maps of unvegetated river-derived sand along the Colorado River. One map is based on imagery acquired in May 2013 and is a classification of sand located above the wetted river channel in the imagery which was acquired at the approximate contemporary low-flow river discharge of 8,000 cubic feet per second (227 cubic meters per second) and exAcoustic backscatter - Data and Python Code
These data were compiled for investigating the relationship between acoustic backscattering by riverbeds composed of various riverbed substrates (bed sediment), and for developing and testing a probabilistic model for substrate classification based on high-frequency multibeam acoustic backscatter. The model is described in Buscombe et al. (2017). The data consist of various quantities on coincidenGeomorphology and Campsite Data, Colorado River, Marble and Grand Canyon, Arizona
This ESRI geodatabase consists of 5 feature datsets with 23 individual polygon feature classes and two raster datasets. A master campsite polygon feature class represents the boundaries of campsites identified in the 1973, 1984, and 1991 campsite inventories of the Colorado River corridor in Grand Canyon, Arizona. The other polygon feature classes represent camp locations along the Colorado RiverChannel Mapping of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona - May 2009, river miles 29 to 62Data
Bathymetric, topographic, and grain-size data were collected in May 2009 along a 33-mi reach of the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. The study reach is located from river miles 29 to 62 at the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers. Channel bathymetry was mapped using multibeam and singlebeam echosounders, subaerial topography was mapped using ground-based totaRiparian vegetation, Colorado River, and climate: five decades of spatio-temporal dynamics in the Grand Canyon with river regulation
These data include image-based classifications of total vegetation from 1965, 1973, 1984, 1992, 2002, 2004, 2005, and 2009, and characteristics of the river channel along the riparian area of the Colorado River between Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Mead Reservoir. Also, these polygon data represent the area inundated by the Colorado River in the aerial imagery from overflight of the Grand Canyon in May - Multimedia
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- Publications
Filter Total Items: 73
Field evaluation of a compact, polarizing topo‐bathymetric lidar across a range of river conditions
This paper summarizes field trials to evaluate the performance of a prototype compact topo‐bathymetric lidar sensor for surveying rivers. The sensor uses a novel polarization technique to distinguish between laser returns from the water surface and streambed and its size and weight permit deployment from a small unmanned aerial system (sUAS) or a boat. Field testing was designed to identify the raAuthorsPaul J. Kinzel, Carl J. Legleiter, Paul GramsGeometry of obstacle marks at instream boulders-Integration of laboratory investigations and field observations
Obstacle marks are instream bedforms, typically composed of an upstream frontal scour hole and a downstream sediment accumulation in the vicinity of an obstacle. Local scouring at infrastructure (e.g. bridge piers) is a well‐studied phenomenon in hydraulic engineering, while less attention is given to the time‐dependent evolution of frontal scour holes at instream boulders and their geometric relaAuthorsOliver Schlömer, Paul Grams, Daniel Buscombe, Jürgen HergetSelf-limitation of sand storage in a bedrock-canyon river arising from the interaction of flow and grain size
Bedrock-canyon rivers tend to be supply limited because they are efficient transporters of sediment and not because the upstream supply of sediment is small. A byproduct of this supply limitation is that the finer alluvium stored in these rivers has shorter residence times and smaller volumes than in alluvial rivers. To improve our understanding of disequilibrium sediment transport and its effectAuthorsDavid Topping, Paul Grams, Ronald E. Griffiths, David Dean, Scott A. Wright, Joel A. UnemaThe roles of flood magnitude and duration in controlling channel width and complexity on the Green River in Canyonlands, Utah, USA
Predictions of river channel adjustment to changes in streamflow regime based on relations between mean channel characteristics and mean flood magnitude can be useful to evaluate average channel response. However, because these relations assume equilibrium sediment transport, their applicability to cases where streamflow and sediment transport are decoupled may be limited. These general relationsAuthorsPaul Grams, David Dean, Alexander E. Walker, Alan Kasprak, John C. SchmidtEstimating the contribution of tributary sand inputs to controlled flood deposits for sandbar restoration using elemental tracers, Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
Completion of Glen Canyon Dam in 1963 resulted in complete elimination of sediment delivery from the upstream Colorado River basin to Grand Canyon and nearly complete control of spring snowmelt floods responsible for creating channel and bar morphology. Management of the river ecosystem in Grand Canyon National Park now relies on dam-release floods to redistribute tributary-derived sediment accumuAuthorsKatherine A. Chapman, Rebecca J. Best, M. Elliot Smith, Erich R. Mueller, Paul E. Grams, Roderic A. ParnellDoes channel narrowing by floodplain growth necessarily indicate sediment surplus? Lessons from sediment‐transport analyses in the Green and Colorado rivers, Canyonlands, Utah
Analyses of suspended sediment transport provide valuable insight into the role that sediment supply plays in causing geomorphic change. The sediment supply within a river system evolves depending on the discharge, flood frequency and duration, changes in sediment input, and ecohydraulic conditions that modify sediment transport processes. Changes in supply can be evaluated through analyses of couAuthorsDavid Dean, David Topping, Paul Grams, Alexander E. Walker, John C. SchmidtCauses of variability in suspended‐sand concentration evaluated using measurements in the Colorado River in Grand Canyon
Rivers commonly exhibit substantial variability in suspended‐sand concentration, even at constant water discharge. Here we derive an approach for evaluating how much of this variability arises from mean bed‐sand grain size. We apply this approach to the Colorado River in Grand Canyon, where discharge‐independent concentration of suspended sand varies by more than a factor of 23 (N = 1.4 × 106). ThAuthorsDavid M. Rubin, Daniel Buscombe, Scott A. Wright, David Topping, Paul Grams, John C. Schmidt, J.E. Hazel, Matthew A. Kaplinski, Robert B. TussoA mixed length scale model for migrating fluvial bedforms
With the expansion of hydropower, in‐stream converters, flood‐protection infrastructures, and growing concerns on deltas fragile ecosystems, there is a pressing need to evaluate and monitor bedform sediment mass flux. It is critical to estimate real‐time bedform size and migration velocity and provide a theoretical framework to convert easily accessible time histories of bed elevations into spatiaAuthorsMichele Guala, Michael Heisel, Arvind Singh, Mirko Musa, Daniel Buscombe, Paul GramsChannel narrowing by inset floodplain formation of the lower Green River in the Canyonlands region, Utah
The lower Green River episodically narrowed between the mid-1930s and present day through deposition of new floodplains within a wider channel that had been established and/or maintained during the early twentieth century pluvial period. Comparison of air photos spanning a 74-yr period (1940−2014) and covering a 61 km study area shows that the channel narrowed by 12% from 138 ± 3.4 m to 122 ± 2.1AuthorsAlexander E. Walker, Johnnie N. Moore, Paul Grams, David Dean, John C. SchmidtAssociations between riparian plant morphological guilds and fluvial sediment dynamics along the regulated Colorado River in Grand Canyon
Effects of riparian vegetation on fluvial sediment dynamics depend on morphological traits of the constituent species. Determining the effects of different morphological guilds on sedimentation rates, as influenced by multiple aspects of dam operations, can help identify viable strategies for streamflow and vegetation management to achieve riparian resource goals. Plants of increasing size and braAuthorsBradley J. Butterfield, Paul Grams, Laura E. Durning, Joseph Hazel, Emily C. Palmquist, Barbara Ralston, Joel B. SankeyEstimating bedload from suspended load and water discharge in sand bed rivers
Estimates of fluvial sediment discharge from in situ instruments are an important component of large‐scale sediment budgets that track long‐term geomorphic change. Suspended sediment load can be reliably estimated using acoustic or physical sampling techniques; however, bedload is difficult to measure directly and can consequently be one of the largest sources of uncertainty in estimates of totalAuthorsT.C. Ashley, B. McElroy, D. Buscombe, Paul Grams, M. KaplinskiUsing oblique imagery to measure hypsometric changes in sandbar volume following controlled floods in the Grand Canyon
Measuring changes in the elevation distribution of sub-aerial fine (< 2 mm ) sediment and estimating sandbar volume multiple times per year can improve sediment budget calculations in fluvial systems. In the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River, effects of dam operations on sandbar size and distribution is of long-term management interest. Bar-building controlled floods have been implemented in 1996AuthorsRyan Lima, Daniel Buscombe, Temuulen T. Sankey, Paul Grams, Erich R. Mueller - News